Former Brazil President Temer surrenders following new arrest warrant

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FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President Michel Temer delivers a speech after deputies of the lower chamber of Brazil's Congress voted to reject a corruption charge against him at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Michel Temer on Thursday surrendered himself to the country’s federal police, marking the second time he will be jailed on allegations that he participated in a vast corruption scheme for decades.

Television images showed Temer leaving his home in Sao Paulo and going into the offices of Brazil’s federal police there. On Wednesday, when the arrest warrant was issued, his attorney decried the decision and said it was an “injustice.”

His lawyers had filed an appeal before his arrest that will be heard on Tuesday.

Temer, 78, led Brazil between 2016 and the end of 2018 following the impeachment of left-wing President Dilma Rousseff, under whom he served as vice president for six years. He was first jailed in March and held in a Rio de Janeiro facility, but was released a few days later.

As part of Brazil’s sprawling ‘Car Wash’ anti-corruption probe, prosecutors allege that Temer led a “criminal organization” that took 1.8 billion reais ($455.52 million) in bribes, including kickbacks that were promised but have yet to be paid.

One of the schemes allegedly involved bribes that were from funds diverted from a nuclear power facility operated by a subsidiary of state-run Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA.

While those allegations have led to the current arrest warrant, Temer has been charged six times overall in connection with different corruption investigations.

More than 150 politicians and businessmen have been convicted in connection with the “Car Wash” investigation, including left-wing ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been in prison since last year.

Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun in Sao Paulo and Pedro Fonseca in Rio de Janeiro; editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Jonathan Oatis